_edited.png)
Stroke Recovery Support
After a stroke, the brain keeps rewiring. Alongside your medical team, we support neuroplasticity, vascular health, and targeted brain-based rehabilitation.
What you may be noticing
Weakness or heaviness on one side. Words that will not come out the way you mean them. Balance that feels unreliable, part of your visual field that seems to vanish, and fatigue that feels out of proportion to the day, along with frustration or low mood.
If you notice sudden face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty, vision loss, severe headache, or loss of balance, call emergency services immediately. Every minute matters. My work begins after acute care, as comprehensive support alongside your neurologist, cardiologist, and therapists, and medications are never changed outside their care.
Why it is rarely one thing
A stroke is an event. Recovery is a process. The injured area cannot simply be replaced, yet surrounding networks can adapt, recruit new pathways, and take on lost functions. This is neuroplasticity, and it continues well beyond the first months.
Two questions guide the work. First, why did the stroke happen, and what keeps the vessels at risk? Blood pressure, blood sugar, lipids, inflammation, clotting tendency, sleep apnea, and heart rhythm belong here. Second, what does the brain need now to rebuild? Fuel, sleep, mood, and precise, repeated input. The brain is the master system of the body, and after a stroke it is asking for information it can use.
Patterns we look for
- Vascular risk: blood pressure, LDL and particle number, lipoprotein(a), and homocysteine.
- Insulin resistance and HbA1c.
- Inflammation, including hs-CRP.
- Heart rhythm, especially atrial fibrillation, coordinated with cardiology.
- Sleep apnea and post-stroke sleep disruption, including cortisol rhythm.
- Post-stroke mood and fatigue, both common and responsive to care.
- Neuroinflammation and mitochondrial support for recovering tissue.
- Cranial nerve, visual field, cerebellar, vestibular, and eye movement function, which shape balance and fall risk.
How I evaluate it
The comprehensive functional neurological exam maps strength, tone, reflexes, cranial nerves, visual fields, coordination, eye movements, balance, gait, and autonomic responses. It identifies which networks are working, which are compensating, and which can be trained.
Functional labs may include advanced lipids, lipoprotein(a), homocysteine, fasting insulin, HbA1c, hs-CRP, vitamin D, B12, and omega-3 status. I review your imaging and coordinate closely with your neurologist and cardiologist. NeuroQuant volumetric MRI can add regional volume data when cognition is affected.
How we address it
- Work alongside your medical team, including every medication decision.
- Stabilize the foundation: blood pressure, blood sugar, lipids, and sleep. When sleep is poor after a stroke, we look at cortisol rhythm, sleep apnea, and nervous system regulation with your physician.
- Follow a cardiometabolic food plan that supports vessel and brain repair.
- Calm neuroinflammation and support mitochondrial energy.
- Deliver brain-based rehabilitation across every system: cranial nerve and lobe activation, eye tracking and near-far focus, visual field retraining, cerebellar coordination drills, and vestibular and balance work.
- Use mirror therapy, which has research support for motor recovery: the mirror reflects the stronger limb while you move, giving the brain a picture of symmetrical movement.
- Rebuild the foot and leg with toe, ankle, and progressive resistance work.
- Keep sessions short and frequent, two or three times each day, and stop for severe dizziness, nausea, or intense fatigue.
Every exercise is written so you or a partner can follow it at home with confidence.
Recovery is a direction, and the brain keeps moving in it when you give it the right inputs.
Book your Comprehensive Functional Medicine Eval/Neurological Exam today to discover what the contributing root causes are that are underlying your health concerns.